Stark On Garza, Orioles, Braves, Phillies, Headley

Arizona general manager Kevin Towers says he’s been impressed by Mike Trout and Bryce Harper from an offensive and defensive standpoint, ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark reports. "They can beat you on the basepaths. They impact the game defensively,” Towers said. “They can beat you with key hits or the long ball. They're both very special." Here are Stark’s latest rumors from around MLB…

One American League executive says the Cubs are basing their asking price for Matt Garza on last summer’s Ubaldo Jimenez deal. This means it’ll take two controllable, young players with upside to pry the right-hander away from Jed Hoyer and Theo Epstein.

Other teams say the Orioles are involved in the Garza talks. However, Manny Machado and Dylan Bundy aren’t going to be available in summer trade talks with any club.

The Marlins are telling rival teams they haven’t discussed becoming sellers this summer. The Phillies also seem to want to add, not subtract. The Phils are considering a long list of relievers and have asked the Padres about Chase Headley.

The Diamondbacks have “window-shopped” for bullpen depth, Stark writes. Towers says he prefers his current team, now 38-37, to the one that won the NL West a year ago.

I’d love to get for Garza what Colorado got for Ubaldo. I wonder if the Yankees will part with Hughes, one of the Killer B’s, and Mason Williams for him. Perhaps not, but a guy can dream. As Cubs fans, that’s all we can do.

The cubs would probably want banuelos, betances star has really fallen this year. I wouldn’t really garza. Everyone talks about how he has experience in the AL east, but his era there was ~3.90. hardly dominating, and not the type of player that teams should give up a big haul for. Especially when banuelos is probably ready to come up soon, and when williams is really shining.

I wouldn’t mind giving up talent to get a good pitcher, but to me Garza is really not the player that I would give up a whole lot of good prospects for.

You can have Hunter, Gregg, and Reynolds for Polanco, Thome, and we need a decent prospect or Mayberry. That might work. I don’t know.
What I do know is that I am not all that interested in Victorino for whatever reason.

I don’t think the phillies bullpen is attrocious, It just has been overexposed, and their starting rotation has been bad this year. They have been getting less length out of alot of their starters and a higher era.

Halladays at 4; Lee is 3.70
Worley and hamels have been good, but using blanton and kendrick when your lineup is already missing howard and utley makes games hard to win.

From that report it sounds like the Twins aren’t even listening to offers on Willingham. I hope that’s not the case. I would much rather see them trade Hammer than Span. Actually I would like to see them keep both guys and spend a bunch of $$ on pitching in the offseason. That ain’t gonna happen though.

What I want to know is what trade value Shoppach has anyway. You couldn’t get anyone of much value straight-up for him, so the trade will either include other prospects from the Sox or the Sox are hoping than an addition by subtraction (calling up Lavarnway) is worth it.

Lavarnway doesn’t have a spot on the Sox if they plan on pursuing Ortiz this winter (which I think they will). He’s too good of a hitter to relegate to backup catching/DHing. If anything, the trade should sent Lavarnway.

umm.. AGon only averages about 160 games a year played. We have Gomez down in AAA hitting the lights out, and he has a serviceable glove. Ortiz can fill in at 1B if there’s a need there. How is converting Lavarnway going to result in anything better defensively at first than that?

The Braves are looking for an “impact starting pitcher.” In completely unrelated news that is in no way connected to the aforementioned statement, they’ve scouted trade candidate Jason Vargas extensively.

@101andCounting If by killer b’s you are refering to Banuelos or Betances, i hope we woud get neither. they are both overrated and reported to be have severe control problems. I would prefer not to deal with them at all. My opinion is that their prospects are somewhat overhyped due to pinstripe fever with some baseball media.

Most scouts are pretty high on banuelos. Betances is a big guy and has struggled with control. If he can get it right he could be a very good starter. It is not uncommon for tall pitchers to have trouble with control.

There are so many talent evaluators, yankees prospects really aren’t overhyped. Prospects from many organizations don’t work out ALL the time.

Funny you should say that. That’s exactly how I feel- about Garza!
His reputation has been built on two decent years he had on a team that improved dramatically in the AL East. Otherwise, he’s a front end pitcher that’s not worth going into panic mode to obtain. Cubs would be lucky to unload his salary and get some relief. Cub fans are deluding themselves if they’re expecting huge returns for Garza. Even if it’s for ‘over-hyped’ Yankees prospects.

In Jason Vargas’ defense, he gave up a horrid 10 runs in Arizona and while he’s been poor this month he’s also gone into at least the 6th in every other start he’s made this year which the Braves really need. You gotta assume taking away the DH will help him as well, I think Vargas is the Braves best option if they can get him for Pastornicky and 1 or 2 mid range pitching prospects.

Phillies have a lot of good pitching prospects. I’m sure they would have sub 2.00 ERA’s in Petco. Either way Headley is mediocre and Ruben Amaro Jr is a terrible GM so he’ll probably give someone really good like Biddle or May.

trade Izzy and mid-level prospect for solid reliever, Angels would be idiots to move PB. If anything eat 20-30million of Wells contract and see what they can get. Even better would be trading Santana, Izzy, and Morales for Grienke or Hamels.

You think not? If the Phillies decide not to move Hamels, Garza is the best arm available except for *MAYBE* Greinke. Unlike Garza, Greinke has durability and psychological questions. Garza’s also AL East-tested, which Greinke is not. They’re nearly equal, in my opinion, when it comes to actual ability, but those intangibles make Garza a much better option for a contending team.

Go look at Ubaldo’s stats from last year and tell me that it’s not possible that someone overpays for Garza just like the Indians overpaid for Jimenez.

In case you didn’t realize, what Colorado has gotten has been terrible. White is nothing, McBride’s hitting all right as a 27-year-old in AAA, Gardner’s been crap at AA, and Pomeranz is struggling with the Ks and HRs in the majors.

So, why can’t the Cubs do better than 2 career minor leaguers, a garbage SP, and one with promise that isn’t showing yet?

No Greinke for the Halos. We have not many impact prospects as is. Do not sell what we have on a probable rental. Not worth it. Also keep Well dump Bourjos. He will bring back a far better return and as it sits now he has zero room in the OF as the roster stands Wells or not.

Fail on both trades. No way the Angels only have to eat 10-15m to move Wells. 18M per year (so about 40-45M of the 53M remaining) might be enough to move him but there still wouldn’t be much of a return in prospects.

Also, 3 months of Greinke is not worth giving up two of the Angels top prospects (Segura and Cron).

Should have traded him before the season like I thought, but people chewed me up on that one. They have too many outfielders, trout, Hunter, and trumbo is a very good outfield. Bourjos is a good prospect but the Angels DO NOT need a centerfielder. Better trade him and keep some vet for left since trout CAN cover alot of ground.

Both White and Pomeranz are young and learning on the fly. Also does not help that the rockies manager shows zero tolerance thus they are pretty much low on self confidence. The Ubaldo trade may still be good if the Rockies actually use both guys and not treat them like babies and play with there confidence level.

Jason Vargas is having his worst year as a Mariner, and even then it’s not that bad. One outing this year literally increased his ERA an extra 0.69 points; take away that one start and he has a 3.85 ERA

Bourjos is nothing more than a glove with speed. His bat will never equate to what so many think it will. To streaky and more bound for the Mathis/Mendoza line than anything respectable. Trade him NOW before other teams catch on to his obvious weakness and his value bottoms out.